The country also has one of the largest hydro-electric dams in Africa, yet the penury of water is matched by a shortage of electricity.

All this means that much of the population in one of the world's poorest countries is in a foul mood as it prepares to go to the polls on Sunday to re-elect the head of the military government, General Lansana Conte, who has been in power since 1993. He is running virtually unopposed because the opposition says the election offers no guarantee of transparency.

"It is inadmissible that Guinea, the watershed of West Africa, cannot build mini-dams so that the big population centers can have water," said Makan Kamara, who lives in Dar-es-Salam, a parched quarter of the capital. "Government after government has done nothing."

The gigantic 75 megawatt Garafiri dam, 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Conakry has failed to solve the electricity shortage. Previous droughts mean that the lake behind the dam has not built up, and the hydro-electric plant has been inoperable for long periods.

The dam was built with the aid of the World Bank and local funds at a cost of more than 215 million dollars (175 million euros). Two hundred villages were destroyed, and thousands of people were moved out of their homes.

Alpha Diallo, a former manager at the Guinean Electricity Company, blames the privatization of the utilities by the military government for the shortages. "This regime will be incapable of resolving the problem of water and electricity so long as the two companies responsible are not under the control of the state," he said.

In Conakry, thousands of men and women wander the city every day with containers in their hands looking for drinkable water.

"In our house we can pass five weeks without a drop of water coming from the faucet," said Salamata, the mother of three young children. "Luckily our neighbors have a well."

"We want a government that gives us water to drink and electricity to light our homes, in place of the one that is there and which does nothing," she said.

Her husband, Abdoulaye Cissoko showed a water pump from which "nothing comes except air."

"For the past 20 years there has been no investment in the water and electricity sectors," he said. "How do you expect it to work?"

TERRA.WIRE